Simon Drucker

Jewish Holocaust Survivor

Interview language: French

Interned in the camp of Beaune-la-Rolande (France) after the Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup, Simon witnessed the deportation of his mother at the beginning of August 1942. He describes the difficulty that his mother experiences in being separated from her children. Some days later, Simon’s brother was deported. His mother and brother were gassed upon arrival in Auschwitz.

Bio

Simon Drucker was born in 1924 in Paris, France, in a Jewish family of Polish origin. Engaged in the French Foreign Legion during the outbreak of the war, Simon’s father was arrested in June 1942 and deported to Auschwitz, where he died. On July 16, 1942, Simon, his mother, and his young brother were arrested during the Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup. Interned in the camp of Beaune-la-Rolande, he witnessed the deportation of his mother and his brother. He was also deported and incarcerated in eleven concentration and extermination camps. Simon lost all of his family members during the Holocaust. In 1948, he left France to fight in Israel’s War of Independence. He returned to France in 1949.

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